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Need a good C, C++ Book

I'm trying to gain a little more knowlege in C, or C++. And I understand the very basics of it. I can only do (very) simple stuff. I can't even get my hello world to work (something with stdio.h, says it's antiquated or something ) any ways, anyone got a good refferance book to point me towards ? I got C++ for dummies, but it's not really that useful. I don't have a ton of money, so any thing small, just to get me started on my own path would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

The fool doth think he is wise, but the wiseman knows himself to be a fool - Good Ole Bill Shakespeare

Unleash!

Supposed to be quite good. And the fact that I am good friends with one of the authors has no bearing on this post what-so-ever.

"Data is not necessarily information. Information does not necessarily lead to knowledge. And knowledge is not always sufficient to discover truth and breed wisdom." --SpafAnyone who is capable of getting themselves made president should on no account be allowed to do the job. --Douglas Adams (1952-2001)
"...people find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right." - Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

I like the Dietel's books. They are semi-humerous, and they teach you in a clear cut manner. I actually only use mine as refernce books now.

But, they are rather good. IMHO. I will say that Teach Yourself C is a good book. Definately one of my favorites.

But, I Have a clear cut plan for anyone when learning something computer related. You can't go wrong with Orielly. I have yet to read a book published by Orielly that was not great. I am willing to be proven wrong, but I seriously never have.

Math, isn't Stroustrup's book a bit for people that know the core language but are trying to improve their coding and know the deep dark ugly secrets of the language. If I remember correctly that is exactly what Richies is like, but I Have not read Stroustrup's book, so I am not sure.

Math, isn't Stroustrup's book a bit for people that know the core language but are trying to improve their coding and know the deep dark ugly secrets of the language. If I remember correctly that is exactly what Richies is like, but I Have not read Stroustrup's book, so I am not sure. [/B]

Yes, but it's still a lovely book..not for beginners.

My problem with the Deitel books is the over-usage of bold in their text. Every other word is in bold face and makes it difficult to pick out what is important because everything is in bold!.

Also they seriously lack organization as far as boxes set aside to show certain things....like binary / unary operators, data types and memory usage, formatting, etc. Yes, there are some boxes, but not enough to visually set it aside from the rest of the text. Their books to me almost read like a novel....just too wordy and unorganized for a programming text. Also, (and I have both types) the "application-driven" books leave LOTS of information out. Lots.

I know a lot of you guys like the Deitel books but I've never been a fan.

I know I'm not a hard-core coder and I've been slowly (like the fabled turtle) been trying to teach myself C, I recently picked up Visual QuickStart Guide to C Programming. The author is the same for the VQSG to PHP, Advanced PHP and PHP & MySQL. They are good, straight-to-the-point, no fluff kind of books. I do have Ritchie's book as well as Absolute Beginner's Guide to C, both of which I found useful.

Another question: I am having trouble with my command line ( I have XP, can't get command to work ) cmd works ok, except when it needs the actuall DOS Shell to run something.. weirdest thing. Telnet, tracert, ping run fine but the actuall shell does not. Think it is something with the .pif file, but I'm off track. Any free/share ware compilers that is GUI based for XP, so I can compile ? I ususally try everything on my linux box, but my keyboard is about to die. thanks.

The fool doth think he is wise, but the wiseman knows himself to be a fool - Good Ole Bill Shakespeare